Any route or boulder problem that starts out of or near an occupied campsite may not be done without first obtaining the campsite occupant's permission.
BETA PHOTO: Climber at the top of "Strawberry Jam". Photo by B...
Description
This route is located on the left side of the east face, just right of an obvious chimney system which diagonals up and right.
A thin start leads to a ledge (the outer edge of the chimney) where a bridge/stem across to a nice hand crack continues to the summit. Rap anchors located on the opposite side of the rock atop the Northwest Chimney route.
This is a nice route with good gear that's only minutes from the campground. Take care with your technique and try not to leave any "jam" behind.
As a budding 5.9 leader, I thought getting good gear and getting established in the crack proper was heady. I've seen other 5.9 type of folks struggle in this same spot. I'd be tempted to give sort of a Bartlett PG on this, "gear may be difficult to place".
Accessing the upper crack is much easier if one climbs slightly right of the main crack and then cut's back left at a horizontal. Getting established in the upper crack is easily protected with a small nut and cam by stemming the gap; above a good hand sized crack leads to the top.
By Tony B From: Boulder, CO Jan 12, 2004 rating: 5.9-
Fun, but presently plenty of birdy PooPoo is on the upper section. This detracts a bit from the overall experience.
The placement in question is 6ish feet above your last piece, and 10ish feet above a ledge, so it's fairly crucial. It's deep and around or behind a bit of a corner; getting it and checking it is challenging. At 5'7", I was maxxed out at the highest place I could stem the gap - shorter people may well be SOL to see/place at all. I ended up downclimbing to the ledge to check the piece, at first.
The step-across move itself was trivial, once I'd spent all my gas getting the piece. The upper section, above the step-across move, is steeper than it looks!
Anchor = big gear, #4 or so.
Really worthwhile route - lots of climbing on it, from the first move onwards.
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